Frantic Inside Grand Caves
by Emothgurl
Summary: Sequel to tears of Mother Pearl. Aaron and Shona go frantic when they discover that Emily's tail-deep in trouble: she's gone and she didn't run away!
1. Morning Mayday

Frantic Inside Grand Caves

I: Morning Mayday

I was pretty sure it was a gull knocking on my window. But then a muffled voice cried, "Aaron!" and I rubbed my eyes and sat up. It was six on a blustery November morning!

What was this, a survey poll on reactions to early-morning wake ups? If it was, they'd better try another hour for survey.

But all that slipped when I opened the porthole window and was met with the sight of Shona's face, pale; her eyes, devastated; her hair in a state I'd never seen before.

She didn't have to talk. "It's Emily, isn't it?" I said.

***

Now let me tell you about myself a little.

I'm Aaron.

I live on a boat called the _King of the Sea_.

Emily's family gave it to me and Mum when Millie decided to spruce up the _Silver Swing_ and live there, instead_. _

We live here, on Allpoints Island.

And now, the main concern: Emily. She's my – I dunno what to call her, really. We've kissed twice (actually, one was a CPR), but I couldn't think of asking her on a formal date or going around with my hand in her back pocket. We're just – I can't say – sometimes it's titling more on good friend, then the next minute she acts like my – girlfriend. But that doesn't happen often.

So, since I've given you a little intro, back to Emily herself. Actually, back to Shona, who knew Emily even before me. She's Emily's best friend. Hey, FYI, I don't get jealous.

***

Shona nodded, taking a great big deep breath of air. I had no intention of going desperado, though, since I hadn't had full situation story yet.

But what Shona told me next devastated me as well: Emily was missing. Gone. And no, she hadn't run away.


	2. Prank?

Frantic Inside Grand Caves

2: Prank?

"Is this a prank?" I said angrily, burying my face in my hands.

"No! Of course not! Sure, I'd play a light joke on you, but not a red alert about a person! Especially Emily!" Shona blubbered, swimming around in circles in the freezing cold water under my window.

"Okay," I said, showing my face again, "Do her parents know?"

Shona nodded. "Knowing how Emily loves adventure, you'd think I'd be worried if she went missing? Her parents said…"

"What did her parents say?" I yelled, thrusting my head out of the window.

Shona looked down. "You'd better see for yourself."

So I pulled some jeans (black) over my PJs and slipped into a sweater (navy blue) and, leaving a note for Mum on my pillow, I opened the door and slid down the ramp on the side of the _King _(unlike Millie's and Emily's boat, my boat wasn't half-submerged. We just had a ramp, as mentioned, to slide down on).

Shona was impatiently waiting for me and my tail to get ready. When I said I was set, we swam in the general direction o Emily's boat, the _Fortuna_, and while we sped along, a series of thoughts ran through my head.

_What could have happened to Emily?_

_Was she (Gulp) kidnapped?_

_Was this just another one of her pranks?_

_Why was I so worried about her? I mean, aside from being a friend? She'd survived severe peril thrice already._

I knew I had a severe crush on Emily. But it wasn't the kind of crush where you get nervous around the girl and you dream about her from a distance. No. we were great friends. We were always comfortable with each other.

And I thought Emily liked me, too. I mean she probably did. But I wondered if it wasn't time to move on.

Look around Allpoints Island.

Marina, a friend of ours, had gone with Charlie WavesFlipper to the mid summer dance.

Althea, Marina's best friend, was already eyed by the blond pizza delivery boy, Jasper Shell.

Probably Emily and I, the two of a few semi-mers around, were the only semi-in a relationship kids around. We sometimes held hands, but we argued, too. We laughed and didn't get embarrassed if we acted like fools, and I know you want to be perfect for a girlfriend.

But, come to think about it, I wasn't comfortable with the hand-in-her-back-pocket thing, too. Dates maybe. Extreme making out, only when we really needed it (maybe only once a year).

But then, I wondered if Emily really liked me. Maybe she even loved me, though that was a slim chance. She'd never acted like it. I could only hope so.


	3. Evidential

Frantic Inside Grand Caves

3: Evidential

We reached the _Fortuna. _I looked around and saw Millie, Emily's parents, Shona's parents, Archie (one of Neptune's officials), Beeston (colleague of Archie), Theo (the local gardener), Marina and Althea with their parents, Mrs. Finwave (The teacher), and some stray merfolk drawn by the commotion.

My mouth was so wide open; I must have looked like a guppy. I closed it as the crowd parted to let us pass.

When we reached Emily's mum, she was quietly sobbing on Emily's Dad's shoulder (I subconsciously wondered if Emily would ever sob on _my _shoulder). Jake Windsnap looked up with his eyes wet.

"Is Emily really - ?" I asked. He motioned to the entrance of the _Fortuna, _indicating for me to see for myself.

As I swam in through the porthole door, I could feel every eye glued to my back. _We wonder what that half-royal semi-mer thinks?_

I sat on the edge of the trapdoor leading to Emily's room, waiting for my legs to reform. Once they had, I hoisted myself up and tiptoed around Emily's bedroom.

There was her rumpled bed. I sat down on it carefully, and rolled my eyes across the room. I absentmindedly ran my fingers the length of Emily's purple bedspread, and then my fingers felt something. Something wet and gloppy.

When I looked among the creases on the sheets, I knew what I'd found was evidential: a glob of orange-streaked seaweed.


	4. Looking Into Some Detective Work

Frantic Inside Grand Caves

4: Looking into Some Detective Work

"Hey!" I stuck my head out the porthole window. "Mary! Jake! Millie! Shona!" I yelled. "Something you should see here!"

They rushed to join me, Jake and Shona till the trapdoor.

I held out the piece of seaweed for them to examine.

"Emily isn't into that style, is she?" I asked quietly. No one needed to answer. Who could imagine Emily as a punk chic? No one, for sure.

"So our suspect is a _punk!?_" Shona said incredulously.

By now, some of the crowd outside had seeped inside to see what was up, including Theo. He gave a collective gasp as he caught sight of the neon strand in my hands.

We all looked his way.

"What is it, Theo?" Marina and Althea said together.

"Early this morning – while I was workin' on a dense patch of dead kelp, just short of Double Arch Bay, I saw that twinkly kid with the nose rings on her way to somewhere secret. It was clear." He scratched his head. "She was with her spiky boyfriend, the one with all that gel on his hair spikes and his tail with those fake razor decals. So anyways I'm behind this huge clump o' dead seaweed, so I decided to keep quiet, 'cause they was lookin' murderous, I mean dead serious, 'bout some business they had. They went the way of the Caves. I just throwed the matter away, but now…" his voice trailed away. My heart skipped a beat.

"Allen probably buys his stuff near the craft stalls, eh?" said Jake. "That's only place around you can buy some real merchandise." For a fleeting moment his eyes proudly darted to a beautiful shell medallion he'd hung above Emily's dresser.

"So Allen's a suspect?" Shona asked to fill the silence that followed.

"Not only him. Angel too." Surprisingly, my tongue worked.

"So then," nodded Beeston, "Who sells striped neon seaweed?" we combed our minds.

Marina stepped forward. "Sir," she said nervously to Beeston, "That seaweed isn't an ornamental at all."

Well, what d'you know.

"I used it a few weeks ago. It's a hair tattoo. Do-it-yourself highlights."

'Well, Miss Hair Expert, no one here is particularly familiar with the concepts of hair 'frills and frizzies'," barked Beeston, "But thank you for the crucial bit of information. It has come to my attention that all need to behave orderly and efficiently to maintain the peace on this privileged paradise haven that…" and he droned on and on and on until Millie stepped forward and sharply said, "So any way, the point is, WHO SELLS DO-IT-YOURSELF HIGHLIGHTS?"

Beeston looked a bit embarrassed, but then shrugged it off and looked round at us.

That was when Theo stepped forward. "That's it, I have it!" we all swiveled our heads towards him. "Sandy Tailtassle's uncle, the one living in North Bay, he'd stopped by the other afternoon and asked me if I couldn't set aside for him a pile of fresh green seaweed I happened to see floatin' 'round. Said maybe I'd give the ones I'd cleared out to him, too. 'Course I said yes. Then the feller mumbled somethin' bout the new kid's fads today, and how this product of his were in high demand. Didn't listen much but I'm pretty sure he's the guy."

Beeston nodded.

We all trooped back outside, me and Shona the last to leave. "You coming, Aaron?" she said softly. I was looking at a snapshot of me, Emily, and Shona on the deck of the Fortuna. It had been the day after we saved out families and brought the Rings together. I was on the left, Emily beside me, and Shona on the other side. Back then, I'd had no idea things like this would happen. Ever.

"Aaron?" Shona called again.

"I'm coming," I muttered, plopped down into the water, and followed the crowd in the direction o the craft stalls. However, it was anything but thoughts of hair accessories that occupied my mind. It was Emily.

Emily with her dark brown eyes staring into mine the moment before I'd leaned in and kissed her.

Emily with her last attempts to end the curse set on us all.

Brave, beautiful, adventurous Emily. _My _Emily. Was she gone? For good?


	5. Boys Don't Cry

Frantic Inside Grand Caves

5: Boys Don't Cry

Boys don't cry, that's what everyone says. But they're wrong. I'm a boy and I cry.

I cried when Mom only had a few weeks to live.

I cried the night I met Emily, because I'd finally met someone who understood me, who was like me.

I cried when I went to bed the night me and Emily sat chest-deep in the ocean and kissed.

I cried when we got the _King_, but that was in the kitchen peeling onions.

_Now_ I cried. I swam along, with shoals of colorful fish spinning in front of me. Good job Shona was speeding up and inching farther away.

Why was Emily missing, why did everything have to go weird, why didn't she love me, why were we going on a wild goose chase?

I stopped, wiped my eyes, cried, wiped my eyes, cried, then finally stopped crying. Then I flicked my tail for good balance and zoomed off to catch up with the others.


	6. Neon Boy

Frantic Inside Grand Caves

6: Neon Boy

So we reached Napoleon Tailtassle's stall, he greeted us with a warm smile.

But when we asked him about Allen and Angel, he frowned, wrinkling his eyebrows in concentration. "I'm afraid I can't help you, Beeston," he finally said, "because no one has bought hair tattoos from me for a week and a half. They're going out of style, I'm afraid. Not good business. Why, just yesterday, I heard word from Clam Seamare's friend that a colleague of mine had closed down back in –"

"Tailtassle," yelled Beeston, "Are you missing any highlights or not?"

"I haven't checked," said Napoleon meekly and led the way into his storeroom.

We followed, silent.

Napoleon switched on an illuminating light. There were boxes and shelves of wares. I spotted some that looked suspiciously illegal but kept my mouth shut.

He pushed through several crates till he reached a small box on top of two larger cartons. With the knife he had hanging at his side, Beeston sliced it open.

There were rows and rows of neon packets, every bright color of the rainbow imaginable. Yellow green, blue green, sea green, okra green, sand yellow, sun yellow, coral red, blood red, prom dress pink, bunny pink, emo purple, lavender violet, and on and on and on till my eyes dizzied from looking at them.

"Look," it was Shona speaking. "There's a gash on the side."

We did, it was obvious: it'd been pilfered.

"It must've been Neon Boy," Napoleon said.

All eyes swiveled in his direction…


	7. Napoleon's Lead

Frantic Inside Grand Caves

7: Napoleon's Lead

This was a lead. We all knew.

Beeston, as usual, jumped right into his overlooked Shakespearean act: "I demand you tell us who this 'Neon Boy' is, Tailtassle, or you shall be in ginormous trouble. That young lady is missing, and she hasn't gone exploring, and if you do not tell us, you shall be banned from this island. How dare you not speak…" and "Blah, blah blah blah!!!" poor Napoleon couldn't get a word in edgewise until Millie stepped in front of Beeston and said in her rock-firm voice, "Who _is _Neon boy, Napoleon?" we all were quiet. Beeston, miraculously, shut up ("Bla – ").

"Allen Reefwater," proclaimed Napoleon. Busted. Thanks for the lead, dude.


End file.
